The enlightenment policy of the Great Chu Empire was a basic national policy. It had been vigorously implemented by Qingkang and others in the southwest before, and later it was also forcefully promoted in the Korean Peninsula, Monan, Northeastern regions, Mobei, Xiyu, Annan and other places.
No exceptions!
If the empire wants to annex the Fuso region in the future, the Fuso region will not be an exception.
But how to promote the civilized policy and carry out ethnic integration in this way is an issue that needs to be discussed.
Anyway, Luo Zhixue is not willing to accept 20 million dwarfs as his subjects.
I feel very sick!
Based on these considerations, Luo Zhixue is still cautious about directly annexing Fusang. Of course, if we don't directly annex Fusang now, it doesn't mean that we can't control Fusang.
Under the current circumstances, the empire has the ability and the necessity to control Fuso in a stronger and more direct way to avoid any troubles on Fuso and plunder more economic benefits. It also prevents them from developing on their own and becoming the empire's potential. threaten.
Fusang affairs are more complicated and need to be handled with more caution, so Luo Zhixue still plans to hold several meetings to allow ministers to brainstorm in order to finalize a plan that is as secure as possible.
As for the Luzon Islands that the Navy mentioned about building an absolute defense circle along the mainland coast.
This is simple!
The relationship between the Spaniards and the empire is actually not bad, and the business between the two parties is getting bigger and bigger. The two parties have already discussed the sale of the Luzon Islands before.
Don't think that buying and selling territory is an exaggeration. In fact, it is normal in this era, especially in European countries.
After all, the territory is the private territory of the monarch, and it can be exchanged or bought and sold.
I won’t mention some examples of territorial exchanges and sales in Europe that were too far back in the Middle Ages. I’ll just talk about the United States, which everyone is familiar with. Most of its territory was purchased.
Louisiana was the territory of the French. Napieron sold this place to the Americans for fifteen million dollars.
Florida, which was Spanish territory, was taken by the Americans for five million dollars.
Alaska is the territory of the Russians, and the Americans spent 7.2 million U.S. dollars.
California and New Mexico were originally Mexican territories, and the United States spent $15 million to buy them.
Within a few years, the Americans purchased another 100,000 square kilometers of border land from Mexico for US$10 million.
The Virgin Islands, originally a Danish territory, were purchased by the United States for $25 million.
Although most of the above-mentioned territorial purchases are accompanied by wars and games between major powers, and the party selling the territory is basically reluctant or even forced, the sale of these territories is a fact.
The Spaniards were basically in the same situation when it came to the Chu Empire's sale of the Luzon Islands. They didn't want to sell, but they had to!
Because the direct purpose of the Spaniards to control Luzon was to do business with the Chinese region, not to value the Luzon Islands themselves... If they had a falling out with the Chu Empire, who would they do business with?
This business is gone, so what’s the point of Luzon?
Is it to suppress the indigenous people who rebelled for three days and two days on the Luzon Islands?
The indigenous people of the Luzon Islands have been resisting Spanish rule. Not only do the indigenous people make trouble every day, but the Dutch nearby also make trouble every day.
In recent years, the Spaniards have spent a lot of money to suppress the indigenous rebellions in various places, and there have been many casualties, which has made the Spaniards miserable.
The Spaniards just want to have a foothold in the Western Pacific and then do business with the empire... But the indigenous people are really making a lot of noise.
Under such a general situation, if the empire shows enough sincerity, the Spaniards actually do not mind selling the Luzon Islands to the empire.
If we didn't reach an agreement before, that's because the two parties couldn't agree on the price!
Now that the empire has a demand, the price for purchasing the Luzon Islands will be higher, and other conditions will be mentioned. Maybe the Spaniards will agree.
You said the Spaniards wouldn't agree?
If the empire directly cuts off trade with them and blocks the Strait of Malacca and surrounding waters, their Spanish trade in the Pacific will come to nothing.
With all trade gone, what do they do with the Luzon Islands? Are you having fun playing counter-insurgency games with the local indigenous people?
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Besides, once the empire is really interested in the Luzon Islands, the Spaniards will not agree if they insist on the Luzon Islands.
Then what is not available at the negotiation table can only be obtained with guns.
Under such circumstances, the imperial fleet reached Manila in minutes. With the Spanish troops in the Luzon Islands, it was impossible to stop the imperial army's attack.
With the imperial military power, it would be easy to seize the Luzon Islands by force.
The Spanish knew this, which is why they discussed the transfer of the Luzon Islands with the empire.
If another country were to change, for example, the Dutch, Portuguese, etc. wanted to buy the Luzon Islands from the Spanish, the Spanish would let them know why the flowers were so red!
But the Dachu Empire... Well, since they are still willing to pay for it, let's sell it!
After all, once the Chu Empire really becomes greedy for the Luzon Islands, they will not be able to protect it. They may lose their troops and generals, lose a large amount of military expenses, and trade between the two sides will be cut off.
This is a greater loss for the Spaniards, especially since the trade between the two sides has made the Spaniards huge profits in recent years. Whether they are selling the goods of the Chu Empire in the Americas or directly transporting them back to Europe for sale, the profits can be huge. It's very impressive.
In the Spaniards' global treasure ship trading system, the Chu Empire was a very important link, and the Spaniards would not give up easily.
Therefore, as long as the Dachu Empire offers a suitable price, they will sell the Luzon Islands.
Their main appeal now is to sell the Luzon Islands at a higher price as much as possible while the relationship between the two parties is still good and before they fall out.
As long as the money is in place, anything can be said...if the money is not in place, they will drag it on!
Anyway, as long as you have a better attitude and don't say your refusal too harshly, it will save some face for the empire. The empire will not fall out casually when the amount of trade between the two parties is not small and the attitude of the other party is sincere.
I have to say that the Spanish plan was really successful. Although the empire wanted the Luzon Islands before, it was not too urgent. Naturally, it was not willing to pay too much money. At the same time, it did not talk about falling out with the Spaniards casually. Degree.
Now, as the navy has put forward three major plans and started to pay attention to the Luzon Islands, the empire's price will naturally be more generous... After all, when the two parties negotiated before, the difference in price was only more than one million yuan. .
The Spaniards wanted 3 million Chu Yuan for the writer... The Chu Empire directly discounted the price in half and was only willing to pay 1.5 million.
Under the current circumstances, if you spend an extra 1.5 million Chu Yuan, you can successfully capture the Luzon Islands, and you can also get the Spanish's full cooperation to capture the Luzon Islands, and you can also get the Spaniards to operate the Luzon Islands for a long time. The many intelligence materials obtained on the indigenous people will also be of great benefit to the empire in its subsequent efforts to exterminate and suppress the local indigenous people.
The military expenditure saved alone is more than 1.5 million Chu Yuan.
Except for Fusang and the Luzon Islands, the expansion of Southeast Asia and the Americas in the living space plan is easier. Just follow the Malacca model of expansion step by step. First occupy the land, then expel the indigenous people, and organize official immigrants for farming.
The only thing that limits the empire is not military issues, but economic issues. The cost of organizing official immigration is not small. Immigrants have to spend money on the road, and they also have to spend money to colonize overseas territories.
These funds are basically supported by the imperial government. As for the people paying for it themselves... If people have money, they will sign up for official immigration... After all, if you sign up for official immigration, the quality of the allocated places depends purely on luck.
As for free immigration, the total number is actually not large. Some families tend to settle in the plains in the Northeast, or in places like the Malacca Peninsula where the empire has been developed for many years and is considered relatively mature.
Who would go with you to a newly developed place and fight with the local indigenous people and mosquitoes?
The official immigrants organized by the empire are all poor people... All immigration expenses are basically borne by the government.
Only they are willing to settle in places where ordinary people are unwilling to go.
Therefore, the main limitation of the second plan is economic factors, and there is no good quick fix in this regard. The only thing is to take your time, immigrating a little bit a year, and slowly accumulating.
Once the new territories are established, they will naturally gradually attract self-funded immigrants. Then the overseas territories will be revitalized and enter a stage of stable development, without the need for the government to spend a lot of effort.
Therefore, the second stage requires time!
The third stage of ordinary colonial expansion actually promotes the empire more. After all, this model only considers how to better plunder local economic interests to satisfy itself, and does not need to consider annexation, immigration and other messy issues at all.
As long as the army is strong enough, it can continuously obtain economic benefits from the colonies and indigenous countries.
And this is more beneficial to the economic development of the empire and the improvement of people's quality of life.
Because this is equivalent to a lot of indigenous people working hard to support the people of the Chu Empire!
This is much better than directly annexing them and turning them into subjects of the empire!
Luo Zhixue is actually not very interested in pure overseas expansion... Simply expanding the territory can no longer bring him any sense of psychological accomplishment... Speaking of the area of expansion, Siberia is big enough, right? ...But for Luo Zhixue, it was just like that.
Luo Zhixue himself actually attaches very little importance to Siberia. If it were not for the complete solution of the border problem in the north, he would not even bother to send troops to fight against the Russians...
It costs a lot to fight!
With this money, he might as well improve the domestic industrial economy and improve people's livelihood. Why throw money and food into the big ice sheet of Siberia and fight with the Russians!
Simply opening up territory and expanding the territory doesn't actually make much sense.
In his heart, the territory of the Chu Empire does not need to be spread all over the world... What the Chu Empire needs is to allow the people of the empire to live a better life.
Living a good life is the way to go, everything else is nonsense!
How to live a better life?
People need to eat, how do they get this food? On the one hand, it is to dig deep into internal resources, and on the other hand, it is to expand external resources.
Let’s not talk about the internal situation, let’s talk about the acquisition of external resources. How to obtain overseas resources cheaply, naturally we must rely on colonization to pry open the markets of indigenous countries!
Wouldn't it be more satisfying to let others farm, mine, and grow cotton, and then the empire would plunder the fruits of their labor with trivial industrial products, or in the future, simply a piece of paper...
This is also what the empire is currently doing in its overseas expansion!
Otherwise, if we kill all the natives and seize all the land, with whom will the people of the empire compare their happy lives in the future?
Xingfu needs comparison.
Others can't have enough to eat, but you can have enough to eat. This is happiness.
Others eat green vegetables, radish, pickles, and you eat delicacies like fish and meat. This is happiness.
Others are in the midst of war and are in danger, but you are in peace and stability. This is happiness.
The empire wiped out all the natives. Who will the empire’s subjects compare with in the future? Compared with the wealthy middle and upper classes in China? ...If there are too many internal comparisons, it will easily shake the foundation of the rule.
Because when ordinary citizens of the empire are compared with the upper class in the country, they will find that their lives are extremely hard...
Therefore, they cannot be allowed to compare with the upper class in the country. They must divert their attention and let the people in the middle and lower classes of the empire compare with others, and then gain a sense of superiority and happiness.
These days, what group can make the people at the bottom of the empire, even a pauper, still feel superior after comparison?
Of course it’s the indigenous people overseas!
This is not only a sense of superiority from civilization, but also a sense of superiority from national strength!
What Luo Zhixue has to do is to make a homeless and precarious vagabond in the empire still have a sense of superiority when facing the natives.
For example, in the past, he was just a homeless man in the Chu Empire who had no food and clothing, and could not even look down on a sow.
But when he sails across the sea to other indigenous countries overseas, he can immediately transform into a domineering and civilized person.
The local aborigines and even the aboriginal dignitaries had to serve him carefully, serving him delicious food and drinks, and even sent his wife and daughter to his bed to warm him.
After comparison, the people of this empire have a sense of superiority and a sense of happiness, so that this country can have long-term peace and stability.
In fact, after the industrial economy has developed to a certain extent, if you want to maintain long-term peace and stability at this time, you must appropriately divert the attention of the people...otherwise they will directly start to stir up internal troubles.
The British boss in the original time and space did this very well.
Did all British people live well during the Victorian period? How is that possible... In addition to the powerful Royal Navy and aristocratic banquets, the Victorian era also had filthy slums, prostitutes, child laborers and female textile workers whose average life expectancy was even lower than that of the feudal era!
But the UK has had no internal turmoil for two to three hundred years, and is even particularly proud of its own country.
Why?
Because at that time the British were the world's leader and the only superpower.
They have a large number of colonies around the world to suck blood from, and they continue to improve the quality of life of the local people.
And there are a lot of barbaric and backward indigenous people from various countries who make the British show their sense of superiority!
Therefore, while revolutions and the like broke out in other countries one after another, Britain always sat on the Diaoyutai and remained stable.
Americans after World War II followed this same pattern, maintaining a comfortable life for the domestic people by harvesting global economic benefits.
The dire straits in various countries can also make lower-class Americans feel proud of the United States... But if you look deeper, you will find that there are numerous lower-class communities in the United States, and the lives of the people in these lower-class communities are not much better.
But this does not affect their inner pride and sense of superiority when facing people from other countries.
No matter how bad my life is, it is still the world's most powerful country, and the citizens of a superpower are inherently superior to you!
That’s pretty much what it means.
Luo Zhixue has also been thinking about these issues in recent years, so he has never thought about simply expanding the territory or killing all the indigenous people.
At least we have to keep some of the poor natives so that the people of the empire can show their sense of superiority... we can't kill them all.
Therefore, colonial expansion with plundering economy as the main mode is also very necessary.
Direct annexation of territory, integration of immigrants, and ordinary colonial expansion are carried out simultaneously. This is the basic idea in the navy's three major plans.
It is also in line with Luo Zhixue’s ideas!
Therefore, after carefully studying the three major overseas expansion plans proposed by the Navy, Luo Zhixue successively summoned the empire's important ministers to listen to their opinions on these three major plans.
Many ministers have no objections to the overall ideas of the three major plans. Anyway, they are just expansion, and this kind of overseas expansion actually does not cost much money.
Unlike the expansion in the Western Regions and Siberia, the enemy is either a nomadic tribe with all the people in arms, or the combat area is vast and sparsely populated, and the distance can easily be hundreds or thousands of kilometers. The most disgusting thing is that it is from the Central Plains to these There is not even a river in this place, so we can only rely on the most primitive horse-drawn carriage for ground transportation.
When it comes to overseas expansion, the enemies are generally not strong. Whether it is Fusang, the indigenous countries in Southeast Asia, or even the European colonists, their military strength is actually not that good compared to the Chu Empire.
In addition, because the supply can be transported by ship, it seems that the distance is far away and troublesome, but compared with the ground supply distance of one or two thousand kilometers in Siberia, the supply trouble that can be solved by ship transportation is not a trouble.
It's just a matter of getting more ships and sending more fleets over. Even if the navy can't handle it on its own, there will still be a large number of armed merchant ships and even ordinary merchant ships.
The only thing that needs to be worried is that large-scale external expansion may cause the Netherlands, Spain and other European countries to attack.
For example, in India, European countries and the Chu Empire are now fighting for Indian colonies every day. The Western Trading Company of the Chu Empire is very busy in India. They just suppressed an indigenous Indian kingdom yesterday. Today We must fight with the European colonists.
In the Americas, it may arouse great vigilance or even hostility from the Spanish, because the current main expansion direction of the Chu Empire in the Americas is on the west coast of North America, and it has established several coastal colonial strongholds in places such as San Francisco and Seattle in later years.
South of San Francisco is Mexico controlled by the Spanish, and the Spanish continue to expand northward.
The Chu Empire's continued expansion in North America will directly confront Spain.
However, the senior officials of the Dachu Empire are not very worried about this... There must be competition in overseas expansion and overseas colonization!
At worst, we'll have a fight when the time comes!
As for the navy, the senior leaders of the Chu Empire still have great confidence in the navy.
In the words of some people: If so much money is spent every year, if the navy can't defeat just a few indigenous barbarians, then what's the use of the navy? It might as well be thrown into the Pacific to feed the sharks!
The navy has also stated many times that if there is a sea battle, their navy is absolutely confident to kill all enemies. Whether it is the indigenous sampan boats or the sailing fleets of the European counterparts, they have enough confidence to defeat them. .
The reason why the Navy has this confidence...
Nothing else, the Dachu Empire's navy just had more people and more ships.
Because the Great Chu Empire Navy has a powerful industrial empire as its support, as long as a large number of warships are not sunk every day, the officers and soldiers of the Great Chu Empire Navy can be killed by exhaustion no matter how poor their tactical abilities are.
Not to mention that the Dachu Empire Navy has already put into service many iron-ribbed wooden hull ships in batches, and now it has begun to build and put into service steam-powered motor sailing ships.
From all aspects, the Da Chu Empire Navy has actually grown into the world's largest navy, at least in terms of equipment and number of personnel. What is slightly lacking is only experience in navigation operations.
However, the Da Chu Empire Navy relies on sufficient funds to conduct ocean training and live ammunition patrols every three days. As long as there is money, the technical and tactical level of the soldiers can be quickly improved.
Currently, the Da Chu Empire Navy has absolute strategic and tactical advantages in the western Pacific and eastern Indian Ocean, that is, the coastal waters of the Southeast Asian Peninsula.
In these sea areas, the Chu Empire has enough naval bases to deploy a large number of fleets nearby, and can also provide reinforcements at any time.
Not to mention the mainland coast, just in the Nanyang and Bay of Bengal areas, the Dachu Empire has many medium and large ports such as Cam Ranh Bay, Bangkok, Bekko, Singapore, Malacca, Kedah, Wei Island, Dagon, and Chittagong.
Among them, the Singapore Port is the core super-large military port of the Chu Empire in the Nanyang region.
In addition, there are many ordinary ports that can berth warships and provide ordinary supplies and simple maintenance for warships. There are many these ports, and they are not limited to overseas territories directly controlled by the Da Chu Empire. Some vassal countries controlled by the Da Chu Empire , the ports of the puppet countries can also be used.
Relying on the many ports on the Nanyang Peninsula and various islands, the navy of the Dachu Empire can travel unimpeded in this sea area.
